Certain Affinity, the support studio for Halo and Call of Duty, has announced the layoff of 25 of their employees.
In the official blog post, CEO of Certain Affinity Max Hoberman has cited that the gaming industry has faced unprecedented challenges in the past year and that the company was no exception to this.
As a result, the company has made the hard decision to lay off 25 of their employees, which is roughly 10% of its workforce, as the official website has said that their total workforce is approximately 250 people.
“Today we made the extremely difficult decision to inform 25 of our US-based employees that their jobs are being eliminated,” said Hoberman. “This has the most impact on the teams running our business operations.”
According to Certain Affinity, the main reason for the layoff is due to an industry-wide slowdown in the funding of new lead and co-development projects. The reluctance of third-party investors to fund game or game companies has also made it difficult for the company to sign new work or secure funding.
The aforementioned factors have led to Certain Affinity to lay off employees for the first time in its 17+ year history.
However, the company is now focusing on the team and the well-being of those affected by supporting them with severance pay and benefits continuation. They are also making vested awards for the employees under the company’s Stock Equity Plan portable so they may benefit from the company’s success in the future.
The gaming industry environment has been increasingly challenging for developers and publishers alike, with many facing challenges that inevitably lead to layoffs in the company, such as Microsoft laying off 1,900 of their workforce in January.